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Southeast Europe
April 5, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Russia's Sberbank buys 40% in Croatia's troubled retailer Agrokor, plans to re-sell
IntelliNews Pro
Russia's largest bank state controlled Sberbank acquired 39.2% in Croatia's largest retailer Agrokor through restructuring of debts and assets of Fortenova, Vedomosti daily reported on April 2 citing corporate information disclosure portals.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, Croatia’s Forten- ova Group, the successor to Agrokor, started its business operations on April 1, marking a debt- to-equity settlement with Agrokor creditors. The company owed €1.1bn to Sberbank, and another €300mn to Russia's second-largest bank VTB.
Sberbank previously said it intends to re-sell the stake in Agrokor in the first half of 2019, with no
Moody’s frowns on Turkish central bank's use of reserves to prop up lira
bne IntelliNews
The Turkish central bank’s use of reserves to prop up the Turkish lira poses questions about its trans- parency and independence and is credit negative, Moody’s Investors Service said on April 2.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was widely seen as going to extraordinary lengths to
additional details yet provided on this. Agrokor, which was Croatia's top employer, almost collapsed in 2017 due to a debt crisis.
Croatian law enforcers continue to investigate the crisis at Agrokor, targeting former owner Ivica To- doric, former executive VP for business and devel- opment, Piruska Canjuga, and the former director for facility investments, Ante Huljev.
According to the prosecutors, they defrauded Agrokor and illegally gained €1.2mn. The offences were allegedly committed in Zagreb and in Cham, Switzerland, in November and December 2013.
restrain the weakening of the currency in advance of the March 31 local elections that became
a referendum on his economic management. Markets were astonished as Turkish banks apparently took instructions to try and shut down the London swaps market for lira by denying it short-term liquidity.